Bailroad-rail



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWD. W. STEPHENS AND RICHD. JENKINS, OF COVINGTON, KENTUCKY.

RAILROAD-RAIL.

Specicaton of Letters Patent No. 18,023, dated August 18, 1857'.

To all 'whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, EDWARD WV. STE- PHENS and RICHARD JENKINS, both of Covington, Kenton county, Kentucky, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Rails for Railroads; and we hereby declare `the following to be a full and exact descripthe rail. 3 is a side elevation representof metal in the line of greatest strain.

These requisites have been sought to be combined in the form familiarly known as the T rail, in which a solid continuity of substance is presented in the line of greatest strain, with less metal than in any other used form.

Our improvement consists in forming a T rail with an aperture (a) extending lengthwise through the thick upper portion of the rail. The tread or track (b) is supported on a web (c, (l, d) which being formed at first in two flat parts (like a U rail) these become in the act of rolling welded together at the neck (c), while the two branches (d) (cl) diverging as represented, supportrespectively the outer and inner edges of the track. A channel (e) may also be formed along the middle of the sole or the rail may be rolled entire at this point. The successive stages of forma* tion by our rolls are exhibited in Fig. 3, a portion of the inner surfaces of the web in the lastl pass becoming in the act of rolling, welded together as represented, so as to form a solid neck. The represented hollowing of the upper portion of the web reduces the weight of a rail about nine pounds per lineal yard, while the permanency and efficiency of the rail are increased rather than diminished because lstly, the substance of the rail being subjected to a very thorough rolling` is so muchtoughened as to be comparatively exemptfrom bruising, scaling and lamination; Qndly, the nearly uniform thickness or substance of all parts of the rail diminishes the liability to those transverse cracks or clinkings across the top which now frequently occur from atmospheric changes of temperature both before and after t-he rails leave the mill; rdly, a rail of hollow or tubular form being less liable to have its fibrous texture impaired with use the fatalities arising from the snapping asunder of the rail under a passing train will be of much less frequent occurrence. This is evident from experiments in analogous cases, as for example a recent trial in England where a hollow and a solid axle were run without oil in a lathe for two hours at a speed corresponding to twenty miles per hour traveling. The solid journal after receiving 179 blows from a hand hammer, broke off quite short and crystalline, while the hollow journal would not break at all transversely but after receiving 400 blows parted longitudinally in several places with no perceptible change in the fibrous texture of the iron. From observation of the fractured surfaces of solid shafts and axles it would appear that crys-` tallization commences centrally or near their axial line, perhaps because in the process of manufacture the central parts are least drawn out. Another advantageous feature of our plan consists in the facility for splicing or making a continuous rail by inserting a plug (g) at the joints. This answers all the purposes proposed to be effected by the various forms of what are called compound rails while it is free from their weakening subdivisions and their objectionable weight of metal We are aware that it has been proposed to constructrailway rails by bending the sides of a U rail in such manner as to nearly or quite meet at the base, as in the English patent of T. A. Kinder, No. 2,730, 1853, and do not wish to be understood as claiming any devices where the sides remain un- Welded, an essentialfeature of our invention l branching to the outer and inner edges re- 10 being, the formation of an entire and coni- 1 speotively of the tread or track of the rail. plete T rail web. In testimony of which invention We here- Ve claim as new and of our invention unto set our hands.

herem- E. W. STEPHENS. The tubular T railroad rail constructed in RICHD. JENKINS. forni and manner substantially as set forth; Attest:

Grno.` H. KNIGHT, JAS. H. GRIDLEY.

that is to Say, having the tvvo port-ions of its Web Welded together at the nec-k and 

